The first important science-fiction film of this decade, Vanishing Waves, is part of SIFF's excellent Women in Cinema series. Directed by Kristina Buozyte and set in Lithuania in the very near future (or even the present), the film is about a team of European scientists who are experimenting with a technology that links human brains. The technology is composed of a black sensory-deprivation tank and two white nets of nodes and wires that are attached to the targeted brains. (The person who is in the deprivation tank is the receiver of electrical transmissions from the brain the tank is linked to.) Soon after the film opens, a test is conducted with a thirtysomething research assistant, Lukas (Marius Jampolskis), and a woman in a coma, Aurora (Jurga Jutaite). The man enters the tank, closes his eyes, and waits. Though a connection is made, the scientists are a little puzzled by the results, and the man leaves the tank in a daze.

On the next test, however, something strange happens. The woman who enters the research assistant's mind turns out to be exceptionally beautiful. The two end up on a beach. The two start fucking passionately. The man comes in her hand. She licks her fingers. When he awakens, he says nothing about the crazy sex he has just had, but he does not hide his eagerness to return to the tank. The next link involves seafood and sex. The next is even kinkier. And with each link, the research scientist becomes more and more obsessed with the woman in his head. The last 10 minutes of this movie are amazing—night, madness, bodies, dunes, and a late-rock tune. It's with good reason that Vanishing Waves is the only film that screens twice in this series. Do what you can to not miss it. SIFF Cinema Uptown, Wed 4:30 pm, Sat 9 pm.